Thursday, August 11, 2011

The three month mark...

I've been in my current position about three months now. That may seem like a fairly unimportant milestone, but for me, it has hidden significance.

I've worked in this same location, with several of the same people, twice before. Both times it was as a summer intern. So this is around the time of year when we would be wrapping things up, running out of tasks that I could keep myself busy with without leaving half-done and starting to migrate my desk flair back home. Instead, I'm taking over the management of a major task with a timeline stretching through next year and looking into buying one of those My K-Cup things so I can use my own coffee with the office Keurig machine.

I distinctly remember one summer feeling like I couldn't imagine going into work 9-to-5 like this without knowing that it was only going to last for a certain period. Actually, I think that seeing this as a long-term, semi-permanent thing is better. It means I can settle in and get comfortable, knowing that there isn't a designated stopping point. I've always said I'm a person who loves ruts, and this is one, endless rut. And I mean that in the best way possible.

So as the summer interns reach the end of their time in the office, I mentally send them off with that slightly-patronizing nostalgia of having once been like them. And after taking a moment to pause and reflect.....I then turn right back to my monitor, because I have work to do, darn it!